London north east Div 3 Norwich 20 SWF 17

The first big road trip of the season saw the lads take on Norwich in very windy conditions. The opponents are one of the fancied teams in this league so it was never going to be easy.

The match started brightly enough with both teams testing each other out but after 5 minutes SWF suffered a setback when prop David Langley had to leave the field with a shoulder injury just when we had started to dominate the scrum and were looking dangerous. Paul Gregory replaced David and we continued to push forward, but in the 20th minute Norwich scored the first try to lead 5-0.

The lads regrouped and put pressure on Norwich only to fall foul of some very dubious refereeing decisions were he seemed to want SWF to totally abstain from contesting in the contact area. One of these penalties led to Norwich scoring a penalty in the 30th minute and second row Greg Tighe spending 10 minutes in the bin.

During this period Norwich scored again with a converted try to lead at half time 15-0. The halftime break saw the SWF players venting their frustration at a referee who was penalising them out of the game.

The second half started and the lads went for it big time and with a line out on the Norwich 22 they caught and drove second row James Wilson over for our first try scoreline 15-5 to Norwich. The boys further cranked up the pressure and in the 57th minute another stampeding maul saw Sharp score and to leave the score at 15-10 to Norwich and game on.

But our nemesis, the ref, then took a hand and binned 2 of our players in 2 minutes to leave us with 13 men on the going into the last 15 minutes. Norwich who up to that point had been looking like a very worried team took heart from the extra numbers and scored a try in the 66th minute to leave them ahead 20-12.

With 13 men and an 8 point gap that looked to be game over but these boys showed real character and from a scrum inside the Norwich 22, Marshall back at number after his period in the bin picked up and slipped 2 tackles and fed Duggan on the wing who raced over to score the try brilliantly converted by Reeve. Scoreline in the 73rd minute Norwich 20 SWF 17.

The lads went looking for the winnings score but to Norwich's credit they defended their lead well and saw out the game to take the points. A bonus point to SWF was the least they deserved from this game. The fight back in the second half despite all the odds against them tells us not only have we got a team with great skills and talent but a squad with real backbone and character, bring on the rest.

Squad- Gittos (captain), Langley, Sharp, Wilson, Tighe, Witzer, Marshall, Gilbert, Lockwood, Reeve, Apthorp, Reid, Duggan, Jenkins, Dukelow, Gregory, Price, Harper.

Next game is at Saltcoats 3pm kickoff 6th October versus Cantabs - come on down and support the lads